Steven Santini Can Really Help New Jersey Devils Next Season
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils biggest need this offseason is help on the defensive front. If Steven Santini can build off his rookie year, he repair a broken blue line.
The New Jersey Devils had one of the worst blue lines in the NHL last season. Night in and night out, they left goalie Cory Schneider hanging. It became so bad, that Schneider seemed to lose all confidence in the players standing in front of him.
General manager Ray Shero will make every move possible to make the defense better in New Jersey. Whether it’s making a major trade or going after one of the few big names in free agency, Shero will do what he can to make life easier for Schneider.
One guy will not fix things, but if Steve Santini can grow into a good defensive player, that could help bridge the gap for the Devils as soon as next season.
Santini had his first real taste in the NHL last year. He came to the team just after the New Year, and stayed in the lineup pretty much every night. While much of that time was some of the worst in franchise history, Santini still learned better how to play the NHL game.
He came out of the gate smoking, scoring five points with a +3 in his first month. The last two months it was clear he wasn’t the same player, ending with a -6 on the season.
Santini isn’t going to be a franchise player anytime soon. He isn’t going to fix the Devils defensive woes overnight. However, he has aspects to his game the Devils have been looking for from its defensive depth.
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Santini is a hard hitting defenseman who can block shots. In fact, in three months he stopped 35 shots from ever making it to Schneider or Keith Kinkaid. At the same time, he has offensive prowess when he is playing at his best. When the Devils drafted him in the second round, they were hoping for a good two-way player. He needs some work offensively, but you can definitely see the skills are there.
Again, Santini will not fix the Devils’ defensive woes by himself, but a solid upcoming season, which he’s expected to have, will help with the Devils defensive depth. If he can put himself as a second-line defender, the team defense looks a lot better. If that happens, then Ben Lovejoy and John Moore become the third-line pairing (Vegas expansion draft pending). Then the top four would be Santini, Andy Greene, Damon Severson and an impending acquisition. That defense looks a lot better than it did last season.